Scruggs’ two-hit complete game and three-run sixth lift EMCC to split over No. 4 Pearl River

SCOOBA – Landon Scruggs' complete-game two-hitter was rewarded with a three-run sixth inning that rallied East Mississippi Community College to a 3-1 nightcap victory over fourth-ranked and reigning national champion Pearl River during Saturday's MACCC baseball action. The Wildcats claimed a 12-6 win over the Lions in the opening game to set up the doubleheader split contested at EMCC's Gerald Poole Field.

Following Pearl River's six-run win in the nine-inning opener on the strength of three home runs by the visitors, EMCC's Scruggs and Mississippi State signee Will Passeau from PRCC were locked in a classic pitchers' duel during the seven-inning nightcap. The Wildcats manufactured the game's only run allowed through the first five innings when Ian Montz was hit by a pitch, stole second and then moved to third on a groundout before coming home on Alex Perry's two-out, run-scoring bunt single in the third inning.

With both starting pitchers putting on a show, the Lions' sixth-inning rally began with Zack Griffith's one-out single. After Passeau's 11^th strikeout of the game, EMCC freshman Ayden Alsobrooks stroked a game-tying, two-out double to the opposite field that scored Griffith on a perfectly executed hit and run. Will Crawford followed with a walk to bring in Blake Hooks from the bullpen. The PRCC reliever was promptly greeted by Carson Gault's go-ahead, two-run double to the left-centerfield gap to put the Lions on top, 3-1.

In his first collegiate start, Scruggs returned to the mound in the seventh to finish off his masterful complete-game performance by adding two more strikeouts to give him 11 for the game and match Passeau's equally impressive effort. A freshman right-hander out of Center Hill High School, Scruggs retired the last nine batters he faced, including five strikeouts, to improve to 4-0 on the season. The only two hits he allowed in the nightcap were back-to-back singles in the third inning on Perry's RBI bunt followed by Logan Walters' line drive up the middle.

After the two teams traded solo runs in the first frame of the opening game, Pearl River set the early tone by reaching EMCC starting pitcher Brandon King for five runs in the second inning. Montz's two-run double was followed by Preston Soper's three-run home run to stake PRCC starting pitcher Cortez Dennis to a 6-1 advantage.

The visitors also homered during each of the next two innings on Triston Hickman's leadoff blast in the third and Walters' two-run shot a frame later to extend the Wildcats' lead to 10-3 midway through the contest.

In matching Pearl River's 11 hits in the opener, the Lions posted two-run innings in the third and seventh along with solo tallies in the first and fourth frames. Aiden Fancher led the way with singles in each of his first three at-bats for EMCC, while Alsobrooks, Ethan Medlin and Austin Garrison all added two hits apiece.

While keeping their overall record at the .500 mark (19-19) on the year and heading down the home stretch of the regular season with a 7-11 conference mark, the Lions have now opened the month of April by salvaging three consecutive doubleheader splits with nightcap victories over Mississippi Gulf Coast, Northeast Mississippi and Pearl River.

Head coach Brett Kimbrel's EMCC squad will travel to Fulton to take on Itawamba in a Wednesday (April 12) twin bill before returning home to play host to Southwest Mississippi in a Saturday (April 15) doubleheader set to begin at 1 p.m. on the Scooba campus.